To come back against cancer, he rides -- and gets the best medical help at University of Chicago

We came across this in the University of Chicago magazine, Imagine:

THE RIDE OF HIS LIFE

Pat Navin is an avid cyclist who's pedaled nearly 7,000 feet to teach the highest point east of the Mississippi River. His determination is as rock solid as his bronze 2003 steel-framed road bike.

So when Navin, then 55, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer in the fall of 2012, he did what has always sustained him in challenging situations.

"I knew the fear could cripple me and eat up a lot of my energy; and I just didn't want that to happen," said Navin, head of Inverse Marketing, a downtown Chicago advertising agency; "My mental outlook needed to be strong, and I knew riding my bike would give me the positive outlook to beat the disease."

So ride he did. For 38 radiation treatments over the course of nearly eight weeks, Navin laced up his shoes at 6:30 a.m. and cycled 44 miles roundtrip from his home in Evanston, Ill., to the University of Chicago Medicine's Hyde Park medical campus.

As his friends put it, Navin literally rode his cancer into the ground.

But Navin credits his doctors, Walter M. Stadler, MD, section chief of hematology/oncology and director of the genitourinary program, and radiation oncologist Stanley Liauw, MD, for his now cancer-free status.

"I was very impressed with the doctors at the University of Chicago Medicine," said Navin. "One thing I've really come to appreciate about the medical center is the amount of effort that's put into research, because that's where the breakthroughs happen."

After learning about a clinical trial Liauw is conducting, Navin decided to use his daily bike rides to raise funds for Liauw's research. To date, he has raised more than $15,000.

"To have this type of unrestricted funding is really a blessing, said Liauw, an expert on genitourinary and gastrointestinal cancer. The funds will benefit several projects, including maintenance of a database that analyzes treatment of all prostate cancer patients at the medical center.

"The ultimate goal is to supplement our clinical care with new data that can help make treatments better in terms of higher cure rates and tolerability of therapy," said Liauw.

On his last trek to Hyde Park for treatment, Navin was brought to tears when he opened his door to find 15 of his friends and supporters geared up to bike alongside him. "It was really something special," Navin said. "I think it's important when you're going through something like this to find people you're comfortable with. I was very fortunate to have found Stanley and Dr. Stadler."

For more information or to support the research of Stanley Liauw, MD, please contact Ellen Clarke at eclarke@mcdmail.uchicago.edu.


"One thing I've really come to appreciate about the medical center is the amount of effort that's put into research, because that's where the breakthroughs happen."

Part of the U of C team (from l to r): Eric, radiation therapist and a serious cyclist in his own right who commutes 19 miles each way to the hospital; Denise, The-Nurse-Who-Knows-All, Dr. Liauw’s right hand and also the world’s foremost expert on hormone injections (OUCH!); my sweaty self; Meghan, radiation therapist and possessor of an extraordinary laugh that turned hard days into good days; and Dr. Stanley Liauw, a guy who is changing the world for the better.  From Pat's blog, http://chicagobikecommuting.wordpress.com/author/patnavin/

No comeback home for piano virtuoso Schiff

BBC News - Andras Schiff: Why I won't perform in Hungary

We heard Andras Schiff's debut concert in Chicago many years ago, when he was a fresh-faced 24-year-old (1978), and soon to make his mark in the keyboard kosmos.  We heard him perform Bartok PC No. 3 with the Chicago Symphony there the next year, and again three years later (Grieg PC) with Ferencsik, and then later with Sir Georg Solti himself (Tchaikovsky PC). 

We heard Maestro Schiff in recital several more times (Bach Goldberg Variations, and WTC), as well as soloist with the New York Philharmonic (Dohnanyi) in Avery Fisher Hall (front row), and we heard him give a stunningly insightful master class in Lutz Hall, Northwestern University, where a student was grappling with a tangle of notes from Herr Schumann and, taking the artist bench himself, Schiff effortlessly spun them into pure gold.

This piece is a report of an appalling shame taking place back home, and his testimony puts a name and face on it.  What an embarrassment to Hungarians everywhere.  What has humanity learned in the 80 years.......?

Amanda Peet's Acting Careers Stalls Out; Her Comeback: Playwriting

Amanda Peet starts over.  Read

Three Comeback Stories That Will Encourage

Three superb comeback stories, each in its own way, from CBS:

Ben Breedlove

Mariel Hemingway

Drew Carey

Resilience

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3445_162-57608308/the-science-of-survival/


Feature, read.

David Dubal Comes Back to Chicago Classical Radio with THE ROMANTIC PIANIST

I learn more from listening to David Dubal's classical commentaries in the first few minutes than I do elsewhere listening for hours:  his own words, and then the insightful, and sometimes startling quotes from a variety of sources.  Where does he get these?

Mr. Dubal has been on -- and off -- our local WFMT (Chicago) in recent times, and frankly, I got into the habit of listening to him online. 

Now he's back on WFMT, thankfully, with a new program, THE ROMANTIC PIANIST.  The first installment was a superb survey of Franz Schubert, the one who was put on earth to write music, but who died, far, far too young at just 31.

We look forward to the rest of the series.  For more on our favorite classical commentator, go here.

Look for his books, too, Evenings with Horowitz, and The Art of the Piano.  The "inside Horowitz" -- he spent one night a wife with the pianist and wife, Wanda, for several years -- was a revelation, an insider's look at a mercurial, unpredictable, and eccentric genius.

Malaria in July, back problems in August, Chicago Marathon course record in October for Dennis Kimmeto

Read